Hamas, the name of the new leader has been chosen. The surprise successor of Haniyeh –

Mohammed Ismail Darwish has been chosen to ‘succeed’ Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas who was killed last Wednesday in the Iranian capital Tehran. A name little known in the West, Mohammed Ismail Darwish already lives in Qatar, where Haniyeh had taken refuge in exile. He is also known by the alias ‘Abu Omar Hassan’. His was not among the names that had been circulating for days as the favorites to take up Haniyeh’s legacy. The most significant rumors hypothesized a ‘return’ of Khaled Meshaal, Haniyeh’s predecessor as head of the political bureau of Hamas from 1996 to 2017. There was also the hypothesis of a ‘promotion’ for Khalil al-Hayya, a member of the political bureau and number two in Gaza since 2017.

Darwish will remain at the helm of Hamas’s political bureau in an “interim” capacity until a new vote is organized, al-Arabiya TV said. Hamas’s Shura Council elects the Politburo every four years.

But then the cold shower: Hamas leader Izzat al-Rishq denied that the Palestinian fundamentalist movement had chosen Darwish as Haniyeh’s successor. “The movement will announce the results of its consultations once they are completed,” al-Rishq said in statements reported by Sky News Arabia.